


A Night's Flight

by TiBun



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, Gotta eat to live; gotta steal to eat, M/M, One Shot, Pre-Relationship, Wingfic, Winterhawk Blind Date Exchange, winterhawk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29412798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiBun/pseuds/TiBun
Summary: The man eyed him, his blue gaze roaming over his leather armor, his finely crafted sword, and finally his face, their eyes locking a moment before anything else was said.“You are a dragon rider.”Bucky nodded, “My friends call me Bucky. My dragon, Alpine, is waiting just outside for me. You’re Clint, right? That’s what the little ones call you.”
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49
Collections: 2021 Winterhawk Valentine's Day Exchange





	A Night's Flight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hawksonfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawksonfire/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters, I only explore the possibilities.
> 
> Gift for Arson (Hawksonfire) for the Blind Date/Valentines exchange! Hope you like it.  
> Requests were Dragons, wingfic, and supernatural. I tried to include as much as I could without going overboard and trapping myself in a longfic lol. Hope you like it! This was my second attempt at this. the first attempt just wasn't going anywhere and second check in was fast approaching so I deleted it all and started over, tweaking the idea I had. The original idea included a goose and more modern setting...
> 
> Let me know of any typos I missed fixing. My eyes have been bugging me for the last few days as I tried to do my editing.

The air was crisp and refreshing as Bucky stood up on the rocky ledge of the cliffs surrounding the capital city, looking down at the dim lights shining through the windows of the homes below. The sky was an inky darkness above, twinkling of stars and only a small amount of light shed down from the sliver of a moon that hung high above.

“You think they’ll make a move tonight?” a familiar voice asked. Bucky glanced over as his partner and friend joined him, walking out of the cave that was nestled into the rocky ledges. Sam stopped next to him, looking down over the city with a sigh on his lips, and his hands on his hips.

Bucky let off a sound of confirmation, “It’s been a few days since there has been any reports of theft, and there is not much moonlight tonight to catch on this supposed avian’s feathers to catch people’s attention.”

“Do you believe those reports?” Sam asked, turning his gaze upwards towards the sky overhead.

“That the thief is avian?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah. I mean, avians tend to stick together in their little flocks or clans or whatever they call their groups. And they stick close to the sea. We are too far inland. We never see avians this far in, so it’s hard to believe that one would be hiding out here to cause trouble.”

“Are they causing trouble, though?” Bucky asked. He wasn’t so sure. Yes, someone was a thief under the cover of darkness. But the things disappearing wasn’t anything valuable. Their city was a wealthy one. No one was going hungry in the streets, and it was only food disappearing from the stores of the wealthiest. It wasn’t even a lot. Just a few small portions each time, and it could have gone on completely unnoticed until one morning a feather had been found, causing a careful count of inventory. If it hadn’t been for that feather, no one would have been the wiser, and the royal guard wouldn’t have been charged with keeping a lookout for the thief.

Sam shook his head, “Seems to me that whomever it is is just trying to survive but can’t afford to pay for food in the market. Steve feels the same, but orders are orders. It’s usually Hammer’s stores that are taken from, and he’s always been greedy.”

“And a bastard.” Bucky sighed, shaking his head, “Still, he insists upon pressing charges so it’s our job to find whomever this is, even if we know King Stark would only pardon the person anyway and set them up with what they need so they wouldn’t have to continue a life of pretty crime just to eat.”

“That’s the only part I’m looking forward to. Seeing that sour look on Hammer’s face when the culprit is let off with barely a slap of the wrist.” Sam chuckled.

Bucky chuckled and shook his head,patting Sam on the shoulder as he turned back towards the cave enerence, “I’m going out for a few laps around the area.”

“Alright.”

Bucky strolled into the large cave and over to the two dragons curled up towards the back, smiling as he reached out to run his hand fondly over the scales of the pure white one that lifted her head to greet him. “Hey there, Alpine, you want to go for a flight?” he asked.

Lazilly, she got up, uncurling herself from the dragon that had a red tint to his scales. Redwing was Sam’s dragon partner who was always happy to just ignore Bucky when he was around. But Alpine was quite fond of Bucky and their bond pulsed warmly between them.

She slipped out of the cave and stretched in a very cat-like manner, front legs and long neck down low to the ground, her back and tail reaching skyward, along with her great wings. Then she relaxed and waited for Bucky to climb up onto her back.

As soon as he was securely situated, they were off, gliding across the sky lazilly before her powerful wings moved to lift them up higher.

* * *

Clint looked out across the city below him, calmly breathing in the fresh, chilly air as he considered his route for that night.

It was a risky one. A route he hadn’t taken before, but he’d almost been caught last time he’d gone down, and he figured that meant that he’d become too predictable, and he had to change things up.

It wasn’t like he wanted to steal from the people living below. He didn’t. But it wasn’t just him anymore. He had other mouths to feed, and he’d been turned away when he’d tried to get a day job to work for the food they needed. But Lord Hammer had threatened to pluck Clint’s wings bare to stuff a pillow set if he ever approached him again. The guy was a right bastard, and really, if Clint needed to steal, why not steal from a bastard that has more food than he needs in multiple stores?

Nodding to himself, he ran towards the edge of the cliff and leapt off, letting himself freefall for a few seconds before he spread his wings, catching himself in a glide over the rooftops. He lazilly made his way, weaving around chimney stacks before he folded his wings in around himself to drop down into the empty streets. Folding his wings around him like a cloak, he began moving towards his targeted food store, pulling out his lock picking tools before he reached the door.

It’d be a quick job, hitting only one spot to grab just enough food to last them a few days.

He was in and out quickly, his bag containing only what was needed. He closed the door and started walking around his pre-planned path to an area a few blocks away that was open enough for him to spread his wings to take off, but also private enough not to be spotted taking off.

He flew straight up until he was high enough not to be seen against the dark sky before he turned towards the cliffs where they had found a small cave they were calling home for a bit. They knew that there were dragons this far inland, but the cave they found was too small for any grown dragon to live in comfortably so they figured they’d be safe. So far that assumption had been accurate as they hadn’t had any fire-breathing visitors.

Landing on the ledge, Clint unhooked his bag from around him and started opening it as he walked into the cave. Once he rounded a corner, he came into a brightly lit area, thanks to the talents of the magically-gifted one of their group; Wanda.

Wanda sat on the floor of the cave with her twin brother, Pietro, playing a game of knucklebones. The two were eight years old and had lost their parents to an illness that had hit the avian community pretty hard a year earlier. Clint had always been a bit of a nomad ever since he and his older brother had also lost their parents. He knew what it was like to be alone in the world as a young child with only a sibling at his side, so he had reached out to them, offering to take care of them if they wished. It was an offer they had taken after growing to trust him, and it was nice having the two around all the time.

However, it also made foraging for food harder. He could no longer rely on whatever he found or hunted along the way, just shrugging it off if he went days without eating. He had two growing mouths to feed as well as his own, so he had to expand his ways of getting food for the times he hadn’t been successful in hunting or gathering.

“Hey, I have some bread and smoked meat.” he said.

The twins looked up, Wanda giving him a smile as she reached out to take the loaf of bread from him.

“Wanda keeps cheating and using magic to win the game!” Pietro complained.

“I do not!”

“Do too!”

“Okay you two, how about we take a break from games and instead eat supper?”

“But Clint!” Pietro protested.

“It’s just a game, and we can all play it together tomorrow where I can make sure there’s no magic, okay?”

“...’kay…”

“Good boy.” 

Clint ruffled Pietro’s hair and moved over to where they kept their things to pull out their bed rolls when he caught movement at the edge of his vision. He whipped around, quickly grabbing an arrow from the quiver he wore and drawing it, pointing it at the place he was sure something had moved.

* * *

Bucky hadn’t been quite sure he’d seen movement when he and Alpine were soaring high above the city, but Alpine’s eyesight was much better than his at night, and she had certainly reacted to the movement he thought he might have seen. So, trusting her, he encouraged her to go lower to investigate, and he had finally spotted a winged figure land on a cliff ledge and walk into a rather small cave opening. One that Alpine wouldn’t be able to fit inside.

He waited a moment to make sure the avian wasn’t going to leave again before they landed and he slid off her back and crept inside silently, peeking around the bend into a lit area to watch as a man with messy blond hair and elegant tan wings to match handed food off to two avian children, one, a boy, with white hair and wings, while the girl had a fiery red hair and wings. They were arguing over a game, and the man looked so soft as he watched them with amusement and caring.

It had been a few years since Bucky had last asked anyone out on any sort of date, but...this guy was _cute_. He really wanted to try the dating thing again if it could be the avian guy he was watching. 

But Bucky must have made a sound or something, because the guy suddenly spun around, bow drawn and aimed right at where he was hiding.

“Show yourself!” he demanded.

Bucky sighed and stepped out, hands out so that he’d see that he meant no harm, despite having a sword on his belt. “Hello there.” he said with his friendliest smile, “Sorry to disturb you, I’m just doing my job. Spotted some movement over by this cave and just came to check it out…”

The man eyed him, his blue gaze roaming over his leather armor, his finely crafted sword, and finally his face, their eyes locking a moment before anything else was said.

“You are a dragon rider.”

Bucky nodded, “My friends call me Bucky. My dragon, Alpine, is waiting just outside for me. You’re Clint, right? That’s what the little ones call you.”

“I tried to do things legally!” the man Bucky was pretty sure was called Clint burst out, “I tried! I asked him if I could work for it and he threatened me. We can’t move on yet so I only did what I had to and it’s not like I stole food from someone who needed it!”

“I’m not here to arrest you.” Bucky stated calmly, “Sure, Hammer demands that you be arrested but quite frankly, everyone thinks it’s hilarious karma’s come back to bite him in the ass a little. But you really don't have to keep on taking food. Our king is quite against the idea of people in his lands going hungry, so at most you’d only get a slap on the wrist before you’re little family here is provided with what you need. Seems you only had the misfortune to ask the one biggest jerk for a job.”

Clint finally relaxed his bow, pointing it down and slowly relaxing the draw before he sighed, “You aren’t going to arrest me?”

“If anything, I plan to offer you and your kids a more comfortable place to stay.” Bucky blurted out.

Clint’s lips curled upwards, “They aren’t my kids, I’m just looking after them.”

“Uhg, he’s going to get all flirty and gross.” the little boy wrinkled his nose.

“Well I think it’d be nice if he found someone sweet to smile at!” the little girl responded.

Clint’s cheeks were flushed a pretty pink shade, “I’ll try not to flirt so openly when you’re watching.”

“Good!” the boy huffed.

“I’m Clint. This is Pietro and Wanda.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet all three of you.” Bucky smiled.

“If...you’re serious about letting us stay with you…”

“Well, I assume proper beds would be more comfortable than a hard cave floor.” 

“I don’t know, it’s pretty hard to beat the comfort of rocks digging into my back all night…” Clint smirked.

“Oh you’re wrong! We’d love actual beds!” Wanda said, getting up and using an outstretched wing to cover Clint’s mouth. “But Pietro can’t fly; he sprained his wing trying to show off, and he’s too heavy for Clint to carry for any decent distance.”

“That’s because he’s weak and old!” Pietro protested. “I’m not too heavy!”

Clint just rolled his eyes and looked at Bucky.

Bucky chuckled, “Well, you can ride down with me. Alpine would be able to handle carrying us both no problem.”

“Sweet.” the boy celebrated to himself.

“Fine, okay, I guess we can give up sleeping on rocks for a while. You two have convinced me.” Clint said, giving up a disagreement that was never real to begin with. “Go make sure all your things are packed.”

The two children cheered and hurried to do just that, leaving Bucky to talk to Clint.

“Thanks...we don’t run into very many people who’d help us out. If you need any work done, don’t hesitate to ask me.”

“I’m sure we can set you up with something to do.” Bucky smiled. “Apart from that...how about a date?”

“With you?”

“Preferably.”

Clint grinned, “Sure. Let's see if you can be the one to convince me to settle down in one place finally. Might be good for the twins as well.”

“Well, I better hope my dating skills aren’t too rusty then.” Bucky agreed, offering to help carry some of their bags for them and walking out first to let Alpine know that the three were friends.

* * *

-End-

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
